Saturday, October 6, 2012

Polyglot.

Go ahead, say it out loud, let it sit on the back of your tongue. No, a polyglot is not a mutant platypus that lives in quicksand. A polyglot is a person who knows multiple languages; to be a polyglot is one of my favorite and most prestigious goals in life.

That time I kissed Pancho Villa.

This pursuit did not have an easy start. I set off to Chihuahua City, Mexico for a language school in 2008. The story may seem nice on the outside, but that summer I felt like I was wearing a linguistic straitjacket.  I had not the vocabulary or fluidity to engage in deep coversation with anyone, nor did I  feel that the words that came out of my mouth in Spanish were even mine. They did not feel like my words, neither in the shape my mouth took to form them nor mentally and emotionally did they carry significance or consequence. Like saying cuss words in Chinese.

This, however, did not stop me. I went on to major in Spanish and take many other trips to foreign countries. Most recently, I have been getting my toes wet in American Sign Language thanks to a coworker at the Y, and I was tipped off to Greek lessons that are going to be free to the community here in a couple weeks taught by one of the Hubs' math professors. Opa! I am giddy with excitement. I will catch you, polyglot.

Why language? Language is the tool that allows for us to ask for the food that sustains us, it provides the vocabulary that binds us in life-long promises, and in the right combination, it can make us laugh until our abs are sore the next day. Our lives are full of it, and full because of it. Also, on a more studious note, bilingualism has been shown to slow the onset of diseases like Dementia and Alzheimer's. Studies have also shown that people with more than one language have stronger abilities to categorize, problem solve, and decisively narrow their mental focus. As our world continues to get metaphorically smaller we are constantly bumping into other cultures; this can be alarming at first, but a simple outreach like language can help us understand each other even if that doesn't mean agreeing with each other. If you are considering the quest of the polyglot here are a handful of the world's most spoken languages to consider:

Mandarin Chinese: clocking in at 935 million native speakers, the odds are overwhelmingly in your favor for finding a new friend in this population.

Spanish: 387 million native speakers, primary language to 20 countries, stretching in the Western Hemisphere from New York City to the tip of Patagonia in Chile. Spanish is also considered a romance language, use it wisely.

Hindi: 295 million native speakers: you could travel to India, ride an elephant, and do yoga with the pros.

Arabic: 280 million native speakers with ties to some of the worlds oldest civilizations. Also great for building new neurological pathways in the brain as you read and write from right to left in this language!

On the topic of language...ok I really just want to tie this in because it blew my mind. So here's to a not-so-smooth transition. *glasses clink, cheers*

Body language. We all know that how we carry ourselves, our facial expressions, how we move or don't move our hands shapes our identity so much that there is a whole genre of theater dedicated to impersonations. Seriously, how many Elvis's (or should it be Elvi?) have you seen in your lifetime. But! Did you know that that your body language can shape you? It's a two-way street according to Amy Cuddy who spoke at a TED conference on the topic. She presents evidence that the position of your body can hormonally effect your brain and lead to a change in behavior such as risk taking; she contends that certain poses, that she dubs "power poses", can really, physiologically reduce stress. WHOA. One minor blurb about me in the midst of this: in addition to language, another of my all-time favorite topics is the complexity of mind-body connection. Intrigued? You should be. Watch and be amazed.

Thanks for tuning in to blog #2.

The "Silent Hero of the Day" award today goes to my Mom who was an elementary teacher and counselor for 28 (or maybe 29) years. She inspires me to be a life-long learner and taught me how to fit an egg through the opening of a bottle using a match, which is still, at the age of 23, an awesome science experiment.

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